Looking ahead to November

posted 02:10 PM Wednesday, October 28, 2009

By: Chip Chandler

I just got off the phone with Ian Parker, the phenomenal pianist who'll join us for our Nov. 20-21 concerts. He's fantastically personable and, as the video below attests, amazingly talented.

After the jump, you'll see a behind-the-scenes peek at his latest recording project. He spent a week in July at Abbey Road with the London Symphony and conductor Michael Frances, recording Ravel's Concerto in G, Stravinsky's "Capriccio" and Gershwin's Concerto in F. The release date is expected to be sometime in the late fall.

Ian told me this a project he's been dreaming up for a while. Each of these concertos was written around the same time, though in all parts of the world. And each has some jazz or ragtime element that ties them together.

The jazziest part of the project, though, was to record in the world-famous Abbey Studios, he said.

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